Norm Leahy, author of One Man’s Trash, has posted his last post. “The time has come to move on,” he says.
What a shame. Norm, who hails from the advertising business, was arguably the sharpest, wittiest writer in the Virginia blogosphere. He brought maturity to the field, elevating the level of discourse and setting high standards for the rest of us to aspire to.
Norm didn’t say why he was leaving, but I would speculate that he just got worn out. Posting two or three well-crafted pieces of commentary every day takes a lot of time and work. Editorial writers at MSM newspapers get paid full-time salaries for producing the same volume and quality of copy that Norm did. He kept at it for four years. But at some point, unless there’s money, power or influence in it, people run out of steam — they can work for free for only so long.
The silver lining in this unhappy news is that Norm says he will continue posting occasionally on Chris Saxman’s VACostCutting blog.
When it rains it pours. Conaway Haskins, another of the Virginia blogosphere’s most talented writers (and contributor to this blog) is calling it quits. See his farewell post on his South of the James blog. Accepting a position in the office of Sen. James Webb, he has volunarily decided to shut down his blogging activity. “This is a great opportunity facilitated by my raised profile in the political world,” he writes.
Perhaps Conaway’s experience points us to the new blogging “business model” I’ve been looking for: Raising the blogger’s profile so he/she can find a better job opportunity!
